Horror game theme ideas:
Above is the mind map for the potential themes I might pick for my horror game project. I feel like the ideas I have come up with are good starts to planning, and all could make for great game demos. What is good is that I focused on lighting, narrative and sound when coming up with ideas for these game demos, because lighting, narrative and sound are the core characteristics of horror so I had to make sure to base the game I am making around those main characteristics. When making the mind map I guess it would have been better to come up with another idea, but I found it quite challenging to do so, because horror games usually have to be quite unique, otherwise they will just look like just your average horror game, and I wanted mine to be unique and different. What I can also take from this situation is that I can now continue my planning for the horror game project, and decide what theme I will be picking.
Games details Grid:
Narrative Planning Form:
Above are the planning documentation for my project’s game details and also the story. I feel like I have presented enough information, on my games details grid and also the narrative planning form. Planning all this information before going into the proper design process of the game, will help me in the future when I make the final design choices, because I will make sure it’s suits the theme and narrative. Nothing was negative when making the planning documentation, either which is good. Another thing I can take from this situation is that I can now move on to the actual design of my levels, through more planning.
Level design:
The player will start of in the entrance and will have to walk around the infected water, to find the key to the first door. It will be quite hidden within debris, and the player will have to work around all the infected water. after they unlock the door, they have a couple options on where to go next. Basically the player will need to find keys for certain doors, while a monster will chase them, and their main objective is to find all the evidence. The player will also be able to find a stun gun, which could be used to temporarily stop the monster for a couple seconds (exact time will be calculated in testing). Not only will the player have to find keys, but there also is one piece of evidence in a room that that player needs to switch of the vent fan to get into (Secret maintenance room). Once the player has found all pieces of evidence they will they have to leave through the entrance, and thats where the game will end
Mood Board:
Above is my mood board for this project. I made this to portray what kind of feeling and mood I want the game to have. I included images of aquatic horror and abandoned buildings, to show the fact that my game will be set in a aquarium that is abandoned, with an infected creature that lurks in the shadows. I feel like the images I used, portray what I want my game to be like pretty well, and it’s a good way to show others what sort of game I will be making.
Production Art:
- Environment art:
I made this production art to get a feeling of what my game will look like in the end. The layout of the hallway will probably not be the same in the actual game but I just wanted to show how it would look, and also I have already planned out the layout of the building, and the security office is set in a different place (not at the end of a hallway). When designing this production art I looked at abandoned locations in existing games to get an idea of how they look, these games include: Five nights at freddy’s, outlast and resident evil. I also tried to show how dark the game should be, especially with the low levels of lighting, that the water will have the light reflect off to create the atmosphere I envisioned for my demo.
- Character art:
This the character that the player will be playing as in the demo. I wanted to make this art because the player won’t see themselves in the demo so I will not be making the actual model, but it’s still good for planning purposes to show the main character of the game. The main character is a detective that lost his leg to a shark bite, so he already hates fish, so it’s kind of ironic that he is sent on a task to collected evidence from an abandoned aquarium, that has a aquatic creature lurking in the shadows.
- HUD:
This is the players hud in game, I have annotated above how the hud will show: health, evidence collected and the stun gun recharge. I wanted it to show the player only the important info, but still make it look minimal so it would not take away from the player experience. When I come to actually make the ui I will have to use an animation software especially for the health, but it shouldn’t be to hard to add the status of them changing in the game, because I have done a similar thing in unity before.
- Menu:
For the menu, it will be a file in a dark room, it was a very simple sketch so of course in the end I will probably add to this idea. Maybe I might put it on a desk in a dark room, and pressing play might show an animation of the file opening and it transitions into gameplay. I also have not thought of a title for the game yet which I do need to think about soon.
- Objects and items:
This is the stun gun in my demo. The player will use this device to stun the enemy for a couple seconds to give them some time to escape. Even though I have developed the idea quite a lot, I might not be able to use this idea in my game due to it might be too hard to code and might take too much to develop the mechanic in my game. I’m still in the planning stages of making this project so it’s still good to develop this idea further.
Prototype Horror game testing:
- The start
I started the prototype by adding a simple floor for the player to move on, and also where I could test specific mechanics that are in the script pack I am using for this project. Then I added the first person controller what the player will be controlling in the game, so now I have a working first person controller that the player can use to look around, move, sprint and jump. I could also change things in the inspector, like fov and what the player can see. I changed the fov to 90 from 60, because (from what I found in my research) it was collectively the fov most people are used to on mouse and keyboard.
- Flickering effect
The next thing I added was a flicking effect. This effect makes objects invisible then makes them visible again repeatedly, this makes it look like a flickering effect, and would work really well in low lighting, if the object was a light that flickered on and off (which I did test around with, and it worked fine). This could also work for things like jump scares, with the way it becomes invisible, then appears, and with the right config it could be quite useful.
- On trigger appear
For this script, I did a little test to see if it could work for a jump scare. Basically, when the player comes into contact with the trigger, it makes something appear. And for this example I just used a white sphere as a ghost, and I think it would work really well for a jump scare, especially in low lighting. You could also make it so it spawns an object permanently, so I could also use it to make the enemy spawn when the player reaches a certain area, which would be really useful for my game, especially with my emphasis on exploration.
- Door
The door script was quite hard to understand, but once I found out how to fix it, it worked really well. the script for this mechanic is actually really useful for my project because in the inspector there is an option for keys, and keys will be a major part of my game, due to the exploration. At this time though, I did not get keys and collectables in the prototype, but I will definitely use this script in my final game. You could also change the way the door opens, so for example if you want a different kind of door, like a mechanical one that opens vertically, you can pick that option in the inspector, so if you were making a si-fi horror game set in a high tech facility, you could use that script for more mechanical doors.
Lighting in Unity:
Types of lights:
- Torch
- Lamp
- Candle
- Flashlight
- Streetlights
- Moonlight
- Screens –technology
How lights work:
- A source emits light and it bounces of objects slowly being transformed and absorbed until there is nothing light of the light beams
- Direct light – light that bounces off the one object
- Indirect light – light that bounces around and creates global illumination
Universal render pipeline
- Hdrp is the higher definition of lighting
Texcels:
- Little squares that fire of rays that bounce off things in the environment, to generate lighting.
Light maps:
- Progressive cpu
- Direct and indirect samples: how many rays you want it to shoot out
- Post processing: auto
- Ambient occlusion: turn on makes objects look more realistically grounded
Lighting Design Planning:
Sound Planning:
3D model Asset List:
Above is all the planning for the assets in my game. I feel like having all these assets listed will help me in the future when I come to sourcing them or making them myself. What went well is that learning how the lighting works in unity was really helpful and fun, so when I came to planning all the lighting I will use in my game I knew exactly where I was going to put the specific types of lighting in unity. it was also good to make the 3D model asset sheet, and decide if I was going to source the models or make them myself in Maya, this is an important decision because if I was to make for example: the monster in my game I would have to rig it to a bunch of animations which would take an extremely long time. so it’s really important to make sure I source the correct assets.
This is my production schedule for the making of my horror game demo. I made this to clearly plan out each day of production so that I will not fall behind with work. Although sometimes I can get ahead and not follow the production schedule, which is fine because as long as I get the work done in the end (to a good quality), there is no stress, especially in the last week when I am trying to get everything done.
This is my updated production schedule (7/12/21), I feel like I have kept up to date with the production of my game which is really good because if I can get ahead of my work I then have time to focus on other things like the production write up, which I am also up to date on as well. this week I will focus on getting the rest of my graphics done, because I have pretty much added every mechanic I want into my game. Hopefully as well I can start sound design this week, which will also make me ahead of my schedule.
Jack's game design blog 